Be Creative in Writing with Dewi Anggraeni
Last Tuesday on February 18, 2020, my class met a well-known Southeast Asia writer and journalist, Ma'am Dewi Anggraeni. She is the Australia correspondent for the weekly news magazine, Tempo, and Jakarta Post. Ma’am Dewi Anggraeni was born in Jakarta, 01 June 1945. She has written many great books such as Membongkar yang Terkubur, My Pain, My Country, Snake, etc. Not only that, but she also wrote a bilingual collection of short stories called Neighborhood Tales. Ibu Dewi has written mainly about cultural diversity in Indonesia and the relation of Indonesia to its neighbors, like Australia.
I read some of her short stories in her collection, Neighborhood Tales, in which the stories are divergent. We can find love, mystery, and kind of humorous stories in this book. I like the way she writes every story with passion and there is this signature of the way she writes where she makes a plot twist in every ending. It feels like she wants to surprise the readers and also gives a great punch line. As the reader, I really cannot predict what happens next because it is not that easy to predict the ending of every story that she wrote. This is a very intriguing aspect, so it makes the readers want to read more and know what the ending would be. I like how she interestingly makes the story by adding historical value, so the readers will not only get entertainment but also gain new knowledge. For example in her story ‘The Hut’ she tells about the cruelty of colonialism in Indonesia with different kinds of strategy, which is to make it a mystery story, so the readers would not be bored. She packs warm and light stories for the readers, and the words that she uses are understandable. So, those are the aspects and strategies of hers that I find interesting and I might apply those strategies for my works in the future.
In the interview with her, she did not only talk about the background of the books that she has written, but she also gave some insights to write a good story. She shared with us2 that in making a story, we have to create an imaginary person to keep us being critical. We can pretend that we are a child while making a story because as we know that children have a lot of imagination, so we can have a room of imagination especially when we write fiction, we must have room for our imagination. When she writes a plot, she lets it grow as she writes the story, so the story will flow and will not be boring. Her biggest challenge is the characters that she creates recognize by the readers, so she said that we have to try to make our characters unpredictable. Last, she advised on how to manage harsh criticism. Not everyone will like our work, then when we get harsh criticism from people, just have a good cry and will get better. Sometimes it will be our strength to write better.
It is nice to meet her in person and I feel blessed that I met her because it opens my mind. She motivates me to write with passion and create a good story.
